Blackhall Colliery

Blackhall Colliery
Blackhall Colliery
	Main street at Blackhall Colliery
	Blackhall Colliery Location within County Durham
Civil parish	Monk Hesleden ;
Unitary authority	County Durham ;
Ceremonial county	County Durham ;
Region	North East ;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Hartlepool
Postcode district	TS27
Dialling code	0191
Police	Durham
Fire	County Durham and Darlington
Ambulance	North East
UK Parliament	Easington ;
	List of places UK England County Durham 54°44′46″N1°17′18″W / 54.746093°N 1.288406°W

Last updated July 26, 2023

Blackhall Colliery is a village on the North Sea coast of County Durham, in England. It is situated on the A1086 between Horden and Hartlepool. To the south of the Blackhall Colliery's Catholic church is Blackhall Rocks.

Built around the once extensive mining industry, Blackhall's colliery closed in 1981. Daniel Hall was one of the founding fathers of the colliery and invested heavily in the establishment of the mining infrastructure in the area. It is believed but unconfirmed that the name Black-Hall was established as a result of Daniels alias 'Black' due to his association with the mining of coal and his surname Hall. In 1991 a local campaign to erect a statue of Mr Hall was unsuccessful due to a lack of available funding from the local Authority. There is now an industrial estate built over part of the old colliery buildings, the colliery itself was pulled down in the 1980s.^[1] Blackhall Colliery is on the edge of Castle Eden Dene, and Castle Eden Dene Mouth.

Over the past couple of decades, there have been many changes. Following the closure of the colliery, the once busy village has economically gone downhill. As time has passed since the closure, other industries have now begun to emerge to once again create employment in the region.^{[ citation needed ]}

With both Blackhall Colliery and Blackhall Rocks being on the main road to Peterlee and Hartlepool. This has meant that these villages have become commuter villages, supplying workers for the now busy and expanding call centres in the nearby towns of Hartlepool and Peterlee.^{[ citation needed ]}

Blackhall beach

Blackhall Colliery Beach 2010 Blackhall-colliery-fisherman.jpg — Blackhall Colliery Beach 2010

Blackhall beach made a notable appearance in the 1971 film Get Carter ; in the climactic scenes the main character is involved in a chase across a coal-strewn beach.^[2]^[3] The film shows the beach black with coal spoilings, dumped there by mine's conveyor system. Since the mine closed, £10 million has been spent removing the conveyor and its massive concrete tower and cleaning tons of coal waste from the beach, which is now pristine.^[4]

Blackhall beach, along with the village itself, was used for the setting of the 2019 book Tainted Water by Dan Farrell.^[5]

Neighbouring beaches of Blackhall Colliery is a narrow strip of Peterlee then Horden beach (North) and Crimdon beach (South), both are within 30 minutes of walking distance each way from the beach. The continuation of the improving regenerative beach can be seen via the coastline.

Photo gallery

Looking North from Blackhall
Overlooking Blackhall gardens
Blackhall gardens
Facing Seaton and Hartlepool
Standing on top of Blackhall bridge facing towards Hartlepool
Blackhall colliery
Monument to the mining industry at Blackhall Colliery

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Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England. It lies between Sunderland to the north, Hartlepool to the south, the Durham Coast to the east and Durham to the west. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946. The act also created the nearby settlement of Newton Aycliffe and later Washington, Tyne and Wear.

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Blackhall Rocks is a village on the North Sea coast of County Durham, North East England. It is situated on the A1086 between Horden and Hartlepool, and just south of Blackhall Colliery which it adjoins. It is sometimes referred to by locals in the area as "The Rocks".

Horden is a village and electoral ward in County Durham, England. It is situated on the North Sea coast, to the east of Peterlee, approximately 12 miles south of Sunderland. Horden was a mining village until the closure of the Horden Colliery in 1987. Main features include the Welfare and Memorial Parks and St Mary's church. It is connected to the villages of Blackhall Colliery and Blackhall Rocks to its south by a spectacular rail viaduct which spans Castle Eden Dene near Denemouth. Horden Dene provides Horden's northern boundary with Easington Colliery.

Monk Hesleden is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. The population of the parish at the 2011 Census was 5,722. The parish is situated to the north-west of Hartlepool, and is on the North Sea coast. Monk Hesleden village is situated a short distance to the south of High Hesleden.

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Horden is a railway station on the Durham Coast Line, which runs between Newcastle and Middlesbrough via Hartlepool. The station, situated 10 miles 74 chains (17.6 km) south-east of Sunderland, serves the villages of Horden, Blackhall Colliery and Easington along with the town of Peterlee in County Durham, North East England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.

Blackhall Colliery railway station served the village of Blackhall Colliery in County Durham, North East England. It was located on the Durham Coast Line, north of Blackhall Rocks and south of Horden.

Shotton Bridge railway station was a railway station built by the North Eastern Railway (NER) on the route of the Hartlepool Dock & Railway (HD&R) as part of a programme of works to modernise that line and link it with the Durham & Sunderland Railway (D&SR) so as to create a railway through-route between West Hartlepool and Sunderland. On opening, the station served the relatively new village of Shotton Colliery, which grew around the nearby Shotton Grange Colliery, as well as Old Shotton on the Stockton to Sunderland turnpike road, further to the east.

Blackhall Rocks was one of two railway stations to have served the Blackhalls in County Durham, North East England, and was a stop on the Durham Coast Line. The station was poorly sited for the village that grew around Blackhall Colliery in the years following its opening and, after the opening of the more conveniently sited Blackhall Colliery station in 1936, it came to primarily serve the more southerly village of Blackhall Rocks.

References

↑ "Blackhall Colliery" Archived 13 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine , SINE project (Structural images of the north east), Newcastle University
↑ "The 50 best beach scenes in the movies", The Daily Telegraph , 23 August 2008
↑ "Hoping to get Caine for coastal spectacle", The Northern Echo , 28 August 2000.
↑ "Northern revival", Richard Nelson, The Guardian , 16 February 2002
↑ Farrell, Dan. Tainted Water. Independently published. ISBN 9781077945661.

External links

Blackhall Colliery from the Durham Mining Museum

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Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
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[sine-1] "Blackhall Colliery" Archived 13 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine , SINE project (Structural images of the north east), Newcastle University

[telegraphbeach-2] "The 50 best beach scenes in the movies", The Daily Telegraph , 23 August 2008

[northernecho-3] "Hoping to get Caine for coastal spectacle", The Northern Echo , 28 August 2000.

[guardian_regeneration-4] "Northern revival", Richard Nelson, The Guardian , 16 February 2002

[5] Farrell, Dan. Tainted Water. Independently published. ISBN 9781077945661.

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